What Trotter likely will have is Newton’s former job. Tigers offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said earlier this week that he’d like to name a starter at the end of spring drills, and although he hasn’t given any indication of the current depth chart, there’s little doubt Trotter leads Clint Moseley going into the first week of spring practice.

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Trotter was originally recruited by former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, but never wanted to leave Auburn when Tuberville was fired. He quickly developed a strong relationship with Malzahn – “Those two are really tight,” former Auburn tackle Lee Ziemba said in January – and pushed Newton for the starting job last year during fall camp.

“A lot harder than many people expected,” Malzahn said.

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Trotter is more of a pure, pro style thrower, but has enough athletic ability to run the zone read portion of the run offense. Still, Malzahn says he will add a Wildcat quarterback to the mix (possibly freshman signee Kiehl Frazier), and that means the Auburn offense will look more like what Arkansas had in 2006 when Darren McFadden was the primary Wildcat quarterback while Mitch Mustain was the starter.

No matter who starts this fall, he will be Malzahn’s sixth different starting quarterback in his six seasons as a Division I coach. In those five previous seasons, Malzahn’s quarterbacks combined to throw for 175 touchdowns against 74 interceptions, and rushed for 45 touchdowns.

“Nothing is going to be given to me,” Trotter said. “They have made it perfectly clear that the job is wide open.”